BOCCHERINI Six String Trios

The Sei Terzettini were written over a period of about a year from 1793, 25 years after Boccherini arrived in Spain, and return to a combination – violin, viola and cello – that the composer had not used since he first arrived in 1768. These are more mature chamber works than those better-known examples from his salad days: here his style becomes more perceptibly Rococo and concerned with simplicity of expression and condensation of ideas. This is not easy for Boccherini, as an inveterate tunesmith, to exercise, but that he does so with such success in these pieces is testament to his seriousness as a composer.

It is clear that La Real Cámara appreciate all this of Boccherini, and they are particularly good at expounding the conversational aspects of his chamber music that are so unique to his own style. Their sound is not always the most beautiful, which is absolutely not to say that it does not bring out the wistfulness in these pieces, but there is a tentativeness behind the phrasing that prevents the sound from developing into the warmth that is usually Boccherini’s greatest advocate. The performances are noticeably lacking in the grace of the flighty lines that is promised by the clear tone that appears with such promise at the start. There is not always an entirely corporate agreement on tuning, either, which combines with a lack of variety in the restatements of repeated material to fail to do justice to Boccherini’s particular form of simplicity and relaxed melody.